- Updated Update -

Hatto – the latest thoughts.

Well, it is pretty clear by now after plenty in the press and on the internet, that more and more of the recordings issued as Joyce Hatto were in fact by other people – we still have the wonderful Bax Symphonic Variations and there is still evidence to indicate that these are genuine, so even if it ends up that none of the more recent material is genuinely hers, we do have an indication of what her playing was like.

The really sad thing here is that we don’t know who made these excellent recordings yet – some of the works were pretty specialised and there are so few recordings that it is possible to deduce where the plagiarism came from.  But when you get into the realms of works that have been recorded by hundreds of different artists, the operation to find the true artist is all the more difficult.

Equally sad, is the fact that the motive behind this scam may never be known, and as each day passes, the notion of it having been just a mistake falls into us seeing an act of piracy that was completely premeditated.  After all, recording after recording is coming to light as having been pilfered from somewhere else, and often the original recordings have been speeded up or slowed down, or the channels switched, or different pianists used for different movements in a whole work.  How could this have happened by accident?

When we go to buy recorded music, we take our hard earned cash, and we purchase the piece of music we want, performed by the artist of our choice.  That £12.50 we spent on the CD could have bought us something else…something we would perhaps rather have bought than have spent on a CD with a fictitious cover. 

Interviews given by Hatto before she died seemed to suggest that she was pretty clear in her thoughts – the radio broadcasts don’t indicate a lady whose mind was going.  One does wonder how much this lady would have been able to play such virtuoso works as the Chopin-Godowsky Studies in ill health and at such an advanced age.  It now seems that she didn’t make these recordings, and if she had actually made ‘a’ recording of them, would she not have been aware that the music issued was different to her own performances.  This we shall never know, but one does wonder that she surely would have had her own CDs on the shelf to bring down for her own enjoyment from time to time.

If it was an attempt by someone to give this lady the fame they felt she deserved and never received, then it has alas backfired.  Had we been left with just the Bax variations and one or two LPs that she also made, we could make up our minds that she was either good, bad or indifferent, depending on our view.  As it is, the recent fiasco has so sullied her name, that she seems to be becoming more infamous than famous.

What all this needs really is for someone who knows to come forward and let us all know which, if any, of the latter recordings are actually Joyce Hatto, and if there are recordings which are genuinely hers and haven’t seen the light of day, perhaps we could have them committed to disc in order that we might make up our own minds about her.

I admit that I was as clearly duped in to believing that these recordings were genuinely hers, just as many critics have.  Many critics seem to have been made to feel that they should hang their heads in shame having not realised the scam.  How could they?!  They are given the recordings, asked to review them and they do – and of course, how many of us wouldn’t like to believe that 119 sensational recordings by an ailing and aged pianist weren’t something really to rejoice in.

The music on the CDs I bought I still enjoy – even though I know it isn’t Joyce Hatto.  I shall, of course, be even more happy with those CDS, when I know which name should really have appeared on the CD sleeve.

I also hope that the Bax Variations will once again be back in the catalogue, as I still maintain it is a wonderful performance, and even if Hatto didn’t have the abilities in later life that many of us for about a year thought she did have, this Bax recording still deserves credit and should be available for large scale enjoyment.

…there you go, I coughed to being a fan, just like many other people…!!

- Update -

The Hattogate controversy!

It has come to light that there is much evidence to suggest that some of the recordings by Joyce Hatto were, in fact, not recorded by her at all, but were, in fact, pirate copies of other artists, apparently pilfered from other CDs.  As I have written a raving report on Hatto, I think it is only right that I should add this controversy into the melting pot for two reasons.

Firstly, if I have been duped into believing that some of her work was hers when it wasn’t, I need to retain some modicum of credibility in relation to the other artists I have written about.  Secondly, there is a strong chance still that some of the Hatto recordings actually are by her – the question will now be to see which ones are, and which ones aren’t.

Critics will soon be letting us know which of the recordings are not genuinely Hatto’s, but I will hazard a guess as to which ones I have in my collection which I recon may still be genuine, although I could, by the time this reaches our website, be proved wrong!

The recording I am pretty sure is genuine is the Bax Symphonic Variations.  Firstly, there are so few recordings of it – in fact I know of  only one other apart from Hatto’s, and that is such a different performance that there is no question of it being issued as the Hatto performance.  The original exponent of this work was of course Harriet Cohen, she never recorded the work, and indeed had played it in a substantially truncated version.  The Hatto Bax Variations date from the time when she was still appearing on the concert platform, so even if there is only one recording left at the end of the saga which is hers, it is a good enough recording to suggest that this is indeed a great artist, even if she produced little or nothing later on.

The Rachmaninoff concertos have been as good as proved to be false.  The recordings are those of Yefim Bronfman, interestingly enough they are not part of my collection, so I would have been none the wiser had I not read this on the internet.  Perhaps I should try and write a piece on Bronfman, now that I know I like his performances!  I do have his Prokofiev and Bartok concertos in my collection, and they are certainly impressive.  I also have his Rachmaninoff concertos now as well, they just don’t have his name on the cover!!

What will be interesting to see is which of the Hatto recordings do prove to be authentic; and so far I have still to find a carbon copy of the Saint Saens Egyptian concerto – the finale is not only faster than any other recording I know, but it also has the orchestra in the forefront over the piano in the central heavy choral section.  The only other artist who adopts a similar approach is Darre, and not only is she much slower, but her recording is mono, and she is also hidden behind the orchestra far more so than Hatto is in her recording.  I would hazard a guess at this stage that Hatto is the genuine performer in at least this one of the Saint Saens concertos, but again, that remains to be proven.

As time goes on we will no doubt find those which are genuine, but until then, apart from the Bax Symphonic Variations, I can’t really, in all honesty, any longer recommend any of her discs until it is known which are actually hers!